Faculty of Arts lecture:

Professor Clive Emsley
Violence and ‘Englishness’: Historical Reflections

The media is constantly telling us that modern British society is being engulfed in violence. Statistics are brought forward to show that violent crime is rising. Politicians seek to out-do each other in policies promising to get tough with violent offenders. But ...

Is violent crime rising?

Are ordinary members of society more at risk now than before?

Is there evidence that tough policies work?

All of these are questions that require some kind of comparison with the past. Serious comparisons with the past are almost non-existent in current debates.

Clive Emsley is Professor of History and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University.

He has just published Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750.

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